Aftermath
by elzed
Summary: Written for the TWoP missing scene challenge. Episode 6: The Girlfriend - follows immediately after last scene. Rated PG13 for language. Please R&R.


_Written for the TwoP Missing Scene challenge. Episode 6:_ The Girlfriend_. Incorporates the last scene in the episode, and extends it_.

_Disclaimer: As per usual – I don't own nothing. It's all Fox's. Don't send in the lawyers._

_Thanks to BonnieD for checking this over. _

_**Aftermath**_

Ryan has forgotten how long he's been sitting on the front steps, going over the events of the night again and again, on a loop, when he hears Luke's truck coming up the drive. It's been at least a couple of hours since they left, though, and that's bad news. If they weren't back together earlier they are now for sure, he thinks as he walks over to the railing overlooking Marissa's front door.

She looks dishevelled as she steps out of the cab after kissing Luke and Ryan wants to run down and smack the stupid bastard in the mouth and tell him she came to him earlier in the poolhouse, _him,_ not Luke and if he hadn't been such an ass he would be the one kissing her now. Except that he was, and he isn't.

When the truck pulls away Ryan does come down to Marissa. Her hair is a mess, her mascara smudged and as he looks at her he notices her lips are swollen and he knows, he just knows they've been fucking. Now he's the one who deserves a smack for being so incredibly dumb earlier and letting goddamn Gaby come on to him in the poolhouse in the middle of a party and playing along with her. Even if, okay, she was fucking hot.

He just looks at Marissa then, his eyes despairing and almost begging her to say it isn't so and he's wrong and nothing happened there but she just looks back, a defeated look in _her_ eyes, and says bitterly: "You're too late" before turning her back on him and unlocking the door and letting it slam in his face. He hasn't said a word because he really wouldn't know what to say to her anyhow, except "Sorry," and "I didn't mean it" and "I was stupid" but even then he can't say the words before she slips away. He is struck dumb, literally.

So Ryan turns back and walks back up the drive towards the house where the party is ending, only a few stragglers left now talking by the pool, finishing their drinks and promising to meet up for lunch or dinner in the near future. Caleb has already left, with Gaby the seductress in tow, and Kirsten and Sandy must be saying goodbye to people or clearing up because he can't see them and he's glad. He doesn't want to have to talk to anyone as he makes his way to the poolhouse and when he reaches the door he lets out a sigh of relief but the relief is short-lived because when he steps in he sees he has company.

Seth has obviously been waiting for him for a while and Ryan can tell that whatever plans he has to go to bed and brood over what's happened will have to wait because Seth is fizzing with excitement.

"Ryan, man, where have you been!" he cries as soon as he sees him. "You will not believe what happened tonight! This was just, so, like the best party ever!"

Ryan nods at him. He's tired and he's pissed off and feeling down, but he tries to muster a smile because Seth looks so happy, and he owes Seth, and anyhow they're buddies, foster-brothers or something, and that counts, too. So he sits on the edge of the bed and pulls his shoes and socks off but keeps his eyes on Seth, waiting for him to spill.

"Dude, you should have been there, it was awesome! Speaking of which, where have you been for the last couple of hours? I've been looking for you and you've like, vanished from the surface of the Earth like you have some amazing superpowers! Is that Chino stealth, Ryan? Because you should teach me something like that, bro'..." Seth rambles on, because he does that, and Ryan waits patiently for him to remember what he was about to say earlier, which Ryan strongly suspects has something to do with Summer. What else would cause Seth to get so hyper, if not the girl he's been obsessed with since primary school?

"So anyhow, Ryan, you'll never guess what Summer did earlier!" Seth is now almost bouncing on his seat and Ryan smiles for real, this time, at the enthusiasm radiating from the skinny boy. He raises his eyebrows in a quizzical manner, entreating Seth to expand and reveal all. And Seth does:

"She kissed me. Me. Seth Cohen. Summer Roberts kissed me. On the lips. In public. By the side of the pool, just over there. Summer. Me. Kissing. It was, it was unbelievable. It was awesome. I'm still recovering from this Ryan, and I want you to say something because the look, you do the look well but this calls for words, dammit, and I know you can actually do words if pressed." Seth is almost out of breath but Ryan can't fault him there. To tell the truth he is amazed at the news. It didn't look too promising earlier, when Summer was dragging Seth around and getting him to introduce her to other guys – or that's what it looked like anyhow and it annoyed Ryan no end, even from a distance.

"So – what happened? Last thing I saw Summer was ... talking to some older guys..."Ryan says, a bit hesitant because he doesn't want to say using you to meet them but that's what he thinks.

"Yeah, investment bankers and fund managers and rich older guys that she was wanting me to introduce to her. That was so lame, dude. But she saw the light, Ryan, I made her see the light." There Seth stops, briefly, and Ryan can tell he's actually thinking before he speaks, an unusual occurrence, especially when he's that hyper. Ryan realises he's come to know Seth quite well in the past few weeks but then Seth will wear his heart, his mind, his every thought on his sleeve, around him at any rate so it's not that hard.

"How?" he prompts.

Seth blushes. "I, erm," he starts, then clears his throat. "I quoted a poem at her. A poem she wrote."

"Summer writes _poems_?" Ryan is confused. He had her down as a spoilt little rich girl, shallow, bitchy and yeah, sexy... A hot chick. Definitely _not_ the kind to write poetry.

"In sixth grade. It was a poem she wrote in sixth grade and read out to the class. About being a mermaid," Seth mumbles, and he's now gone crimson. His ears are flaming.

Ryan processes the information and realises that he doesn't understand girls at all. He's mildly stunned that Seth not only remembered a poem Summer wrote all these years ago, but was willing to quote it back at her. But he is truly astounded that it made her kiss him. He wouldn't have pegged Summer as a girl who'd go for something as sappy as that. Clearly, he is very wrong, and he needs to learn more about Newport girls at any rate. Although he draws the line at taking advice from Seth.

"Way to go, Seth," he grins, and he feels really happy for his friend, and forgets for a moment his own disastrous evening – which did involve kissing, too, but entirely the wrong person as it turned out, so it doesn't really count. Even if it was hot.

"Of course," Seth adds, "I have absolutely no idea what it meant, or where it goes from now. But Summer kissed me, Ryan, and that's enough to make tonight the best party I have ever been to in my entire life. And let me tell you, buddy, I've been to a lot of parties here in Newport. A lot." He subsides on his seat, finally calmer. He's let it all out, and Ryan realises that he is about to come under Seth's scrutiny and there's not much he can do to avoid it.

"So, dude, what about your evening? Not that I mean to pry but man, you were gone forever, and I looked for you _everywhere_, for ages, and I wonder if there's anything _you_ should be telling _me_." And this time Seth is the one raising his eyebrows expectantly at Ryan. Who sighs, because he already knows that no matter what, Seth will keep going until he tells him what happened. Seth is nothing if not persistent, and Ryan hasn't got the heart, or the stamina, to kick him out of the poolhouse, which would only postpone the third degree until tomorrow, anyhow. So he tries an edited version.

"Okay, well, it wasn't such a great night for me. Marissa... Marissa came looking for me earlier. And, er...." Ryan is becoming aware that this isn't going anywhere, not unless he mentions Gaby, which he doesn't want to.

But Seth saves him the trouble: "Hang on there Ryan, does my extremely hot potential grandma have anything to do with this? Because I have to tell you I saw her talking to you on the stairs a while ago, and doing something with your hair, and you looked mightily pissed off."

Ryan looks embarrassed and nods, eyes low. "Yeah. She, um, she also came looking for me. And found me. Just before Marissa did." He figures Seth can get the picture now and shut up but of course, Seth doesn't take the hint.

"Whoa, man, are you saying Marissa walked in on you hooking up with my grandma?!" His eyes are wide and his expression halfway between horror and awe. Any minute now he's going to start bouncing again.

Ryan groans. "If you must spell it out, yes."

"Were you guys...?" starts Seth but Ryan cuts him off. "No. Whatever you're asking, no. But Marissa left with Luke. And she's only just come back And I fucked up, Seth, I fucked up bad."

"I don't get it, though," ponders Seth. "I thought she'd already made her choice. She picked Luke, right? But if she came looking for you, hey, maybe wrong?"

"Not anymore," sighs Ryan, and no matter what he won't tell Seth that she came home sad and bitter and looking like she'd been fucked – and for all the wrong reasons – because it still hurts too much to think about it.

But Seth isn't quite done: "So, Gaby came looking for you here, right? In your bedroom? I mean, if Marissa hadn't walked in on you would you guys have..."

But now Ryan has had enough. "Seth," he sighs, exasperated, "I don't want to go there. It's been a rough night, dude, and I'm happy you got kissed by Summer but I want to go to bed now. I don't want to think about it, I don't want to talk about it and I sure as hell don't want to speculate about what might have been."

And because this is one of the longest speeches Seth has ever heard Ryan make, he shuts up and shrugs and smiles apologetically at Ryan as he makes for the door.

"Goodnight, bro'."

"Goodnight, Seth" and the door closes and finally, Ryan is alone with his thoughts and although he told Seth he didn't want to think about the night's events he knows he can't help it.

So for the thousandth time he beats himself up for being such a hormone-driven seventeen-year-old that he can't say no to a hot chick at a party. Even if the hot chick is like, eight or ten years older than he is and is dating the guy whose birthday party it is. Who happens to be the richest guy in town, and Seth's grandpa to boot. And, fuck her, she ought to know better! In a way, he muses, maybe he was lucky it was Marissa and not Kirsten, or fucking Caleb, who walked in on them. And it could have been worse, if she'd come in fifteen minutes later. Yeah, that's it, thinks Ryan, let's just imagine how much worse this already sucky evening could've turned out.

He lies down on his bed, crosses his hands behind his head and stares at the ceiling. Ryan likes to think he knows about girls, he's always gotten along with girls, even as friends, and never had a problem getting laid in Chino. But he realises that he doesn't really know what makes girls tick anymore. Well, sometimes, he does. When they come onto him like Gaby did and they're all flirty talk and pouting lips and sly glances and batting eyelids then he knows exactly what they want and what to do. But he has no clue what a girl like Marissa wants, and what she means when she does things because he really thought she was back with Luke, and that it was too late already when she turned up that evening. And now it turns out he had a second chance, and he blew it.

And while he's at it, Christ, why didn't he think of locking the door.


End file.
